Technology organisation ABB has announced it will launch a gender neutral parental leave programme in order to foster a more diverse and inclusive culture.
The new initiative, which is part of ABB’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2030, will support families by giving parents an opportunity to balance career and family responsibilities. Every ABB employee worldwide who is having a child, whose partner is having a child, who adopts a child or becomes a parent through surrogacy, will be entitled to paid parental leave.
According to ABB, the programme will grant each employee with the primary and ongoing responsibility for the care of a newborn or newly adopted minor child under the age of three 12 weeks of paid leave, following birth or adoption, and each secondary caregiver will be given four weeks of paid parental leave. The time off may be taken at any time within the first year of the baby’s birth or adoption and at the end of the parental leave. In addition eligible employees are guaranteed the right to return to the same job as before, or a similar job which has the same or better status, terms and conditions.
The programme will come into effect by 1 January 2022, and will be implemented on a country-by-country basis, subject to local laws and regulations, and any required prior engagement of employee representatives.
Carolina Granat, ABB’s chief human resources officer, explained that building and fostering a culture of diversity and inclusion is a priority for the business and represents a foundation for innovation and better decision making.
“We support gender equality and diversity and understand that every family is unique. The global parental leave will apply across ABB to support our employees as new parents. This helps provide a healthy start in the life of their children and also supports their own wellbeing as working parents,” she said.
